Marc Hill - 2004 Ford Mustang Cobra

I am currently a Chief Master Sergeant (E9) in the Air Force. I have almost 28 years of active duty service. Even before I came in the military, I had a love for the mustangs. What was the defining moment when I would own nothing but a mustang from now on was when I had a fox body mustang whoop my butt in a race. At the time I was driving a corvette. I sold the corvette and bought a mustang the following week and have never looked back.

I found this 04 Competition Orange Cobra, original owner, 14K original miles, online in Florida. Had a buddy in the local area test drive it for me, and bought it sight unseen in December of 2005. Had the car shipped from Florida via California to Hawaii where it arrived a little over a month later.

As fate and the military would have it, I got another overseas assignment to Japan after owning it for less than a 1 year. I could not take it to Japan with me. My wife wanted me to sell it. I had multiple friends wanting to purchase it. There was no way I could sell it. I made the decision to store it. The military shipped it to Los Angeles, CA where it sat for 4 ½ years while I did my tour in Japan.

While I was serving in Japan, I got into many mustang forums to learn about the Terminator. I finally joined www.UnitedStangs.com . I enjoyed this site so much because it catered not only to the everyday civilian, but to military folks all over the world. I ended up purchasing the site and own it to this day. Of course, I brought on many vendors to the website. This opened doors for me to purchase parts for my car while it was in storage. My goal was tri-fold. 1) I wanted a car that I could cruise every day and go to mustang events 2) A car I could take to the track. 3) And the most important factor, I wanted it to be 600HP every day driver. Keep in mind, that with the current modifications I was already near 500 HP, but wanted more.

Over the next few years I purchased parts online and had them sent to my father in Colorado. I literally had a whole section of his garage filled with nothing but my parts. My father and the Fed Ex man became very good friends with constant deliveries to his door over the years!

Well fast forward to July 2011. I am reassigned to Hill Air Force Base, Utah. I pull my cobra out of storage with 20,000 original miles. I literally had $10,000+ worth of parts to install and no time to do it. With my job in the military, moving from overseas back to the states, kids in school and college, and winter fast approaching it seemed unconceivable to me to try and put this beast together. I had heard of this great shop called “Premier Performance” up in West Valley, Utah. I called the owners, Brock and Heath, to arranged having all my parts installed and tuned in one shot. This was not a easy feat. Considering the things I had to install was:

MOTOR

2.9 Polished Whipple Supercharger

Returnless Fuel System capable of handling 1000 HP consisting of:

Fore Precision Works Tripple Pump Fuel Hat

3 Ford GT Supercar Pumps

Zone 5 Performance MDM Mega Driver Module

Upgrade Fuel Lines

Fore Precision Works Fuel Rails (Polished)

Semens Deka 80 lb High Inpendance Fuel Injectors

JLT Oil Separator

Carbon Fiber Valve Covers

“Powered By Ford” Coil Covers (Polished)

PFAB Supercharger Tank (Polished)

PFAB Radiator Tank (Polished)

EGR Delete Kit

SCT XCal3 Programmer/Handheld Tuner

AFCO Pro Series Dual Pass Heat Exchanger

MotoBlue Idler Pulley

SCT BA-3000 MAF (Polished)

JLT Carbon Fiber CAI

Reische 170 Degree Thermostat

Canton Power Steering Tank (Polished)

Even Flow Head Generation 2 Head Cooling Mod

Reichard Racing 3.0 Racing Pulley (Polished)

Acufab Single Blade Throttle body (Polished)

CLUTCH

McLeod 26 Spline RXT Twin Disk Clutch

McLeod Lightened Steel Flywheel

D&D 26-Spline Input Shaft

Lethal Performance T-56 Throwout Bearing & Retainer Sleeve

Fiore Micro-Click Firewall Adjuster & Quadrant

LDC Chicago Clutch Freeplay Correction Kit

REAR

Fore Precision Works Aluminum IRS Differential Cover

SUSPENSION

Maximum MotorSports Chrome Caster Camber Plates

Steeda Bump Steer Kit

Hans Full Length Subframe Connectors

Summit Racing Driveshaft Loop

Eibach Pro Lowering Springs

EXHAUST

Bassani X Pipe without Cats

Flowmaster 40s Series Mufflers

INTERIOR

Aero Force Dual Gauges

AeroForce Wideband

Speed Hut Dual Pillar Pod

After just 17 days in the shop, the Premier Performance’s tuning magic began. The result was 622 HP & 552 lbs of torque on 91 Octane (my daily driver tune) and 686 HP and 627 lbs of torque on 110 octane (my race tune). The car drives like a stock cobra with just a lot more HP!

Here is a link to the 622 HP pull on the dyno:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I9slgMGBq4

My future modifications are to change out the exhaust system and got with ARH 1 ¾ long tube headers with a new tune. I am hoping to break into the 650HP daily driver tune and break 700HP on the race tune. The car has not been to the track yet as the car was finished after the track closed. I plan on having it there next racing season.

Well you asked FOR IT...this is the whole story. Hopefully I make the cut!